4 Dec 2024
Director: Marco Bellochio
Italy
2023
125 min
Veteran director Bellochio brings to life an almost unbelievable true story from a shocking and turbulent period in Italian history. In 1858, six-year-old Jewish boy, Edgardo Mortara, lived with his family in Bologna. Claiming that the boy was baptised by the family’s maid as a baby, the Catholic Church decreed that Edgardo could no longer live with his Jewish family and that he should be taken to a school to be raised as a Catholic under the supervision of Pope Pius IX. Whilst the distraught Mortara family fought to get him back, they found themselves at the epicentre of a wider historical battle between the forces of Catholic authoritarianism and the political awakening taking place across Italy and Europe. Bellochio skilfully creates a gripping and colourful portrait of a small community in turmoil at the mercy of an all-powerful theocracy during the period of Unification.
Festival de Cannes 2023 – Nominee Palme d’Or